“One bag for one coupon – it doesn’t matter how many clothes are in it or what condition they are in. However, at this time, we’re only accepting clothing – no shoes or jewelry. Customers are limited to 2 bags per day.” When the sales associates accept a bag, they tape itup with special green tape to ensure that no one goes through the bags looking for great finds. The bags are shipped to a sorting facility where they are divided into 4 groups:

Rewear: clothing that is good enough for reuse will be sold

Reuse: textiles that can easily be converted can find a second life as cleaning cloths

Recycle:some clothes will be broken down and repurposed into new textile fabrics

Energy:clothing that can not be reused or repurposed will be burned to create energy.

Any revenue collected from these activities will be used to fund

the customer coupons, donate to local charities, and re-invest in H&M’s sustainability initiatives.

H&M partnered with Swiss company I:CO to facilitate the collection and recycling. I:CO is a company that provides the infrastructure for clothing recycling initiatives provided by a growing number of retailers. And it’s big business: the company has 3,000 employees worldwide and currently processes around 500 tons of used items every day in 74 countries.

The company doesn’t just want to recycle discarded goods – they want to upcycle the materials they collect and even influence the supply chain to increase the quantity of recycled materials in new products.

Only select stores are participating in this program, though H&Mplans on including more stores this year.

The North Face

The world’s largest outdoor clothing company, has partnered withI:COand The Conservation Allianceto launch a new recycling program designed to keep clothing out of landfills.

The Clothes The Loop program allows consumers to drop off worn out or unwanted clothing at participating The North Face stores, regardless of condition or brand. Specially marked collection bins have been placed in ten of the company’s retail stores, including Chicago,New York and San Francisco locations.

Consumers who drop off items will receive a voucher that can be redeemed for $10 off a purchase from one of the company’s stores.

The Clothes The Loop program will be carried out in collaboration with I:CO, a company that collects, sorts and recycles used textiles and shoes. I:CO has previously partnered with PUMA, Foot Locker, Adidas, Carhartt, Volcom and H&M.

Items deposited into the bins will be sent to a recycling center where they are sorted, reused or recycled into raw materials, including fibers for new clothing, carpet padding, stuffing for toys and carpet padding, according to The North Face.

"Our partnership with I:CO takes our commitment to reducing waste even further by providing our customers with an alternative end for products they no longer want or need, keeping these items from landfills and protecting our natural playgrounds," said Adam Mott, The North Face corporate sustainability manager.

Approximately 22 billion pounds of textile waste ended up in landfills in 2010, according to the U.S. EPA. The production of a single T-shirt consumes between 10,000 and 30,000 liters of water and produces almost eight pounds of C02 emissions, says I:CO on its website. Only five to ten percent of these quantities are used or produced during the recycling process, the company says.

All proceeds from the program will benefit The Conservation Alliance, which helps fund community-based campaigns to protect wilderness and recreation areas.Puma

InCycle is available in Puma stores worldwide starting this month - the industry's first "closed-loop" clothing line includes clothes, footwear and accessories - all Cradle to Cradle Certified.

Puma says its purpose is to help people reduce their personal environmental footprints by buying clothes that can be returned tothe company at the end of life.

When people return the clothes under PUMA's Bring Me Back Program,they will either be recycled or composted depending on the material.

"We feel that we are responsible for the environmental impact our products cause and this innovative concept in sustainability is a first step towards our long-term vision of using innovative materials and design concepts for PUMA products that can be recycled in technical processes or composted in biological cycles," says CEO Franz Koch.